Artist: P:O:B 
   Title: Crossing Over
   Label: Fishfarm Records

P:O:B (Pedestrians Of Blue) hail from Haugesund in Norway and deliver Melodic and Prog Hardrock with a mix of the classics like Dream Theater, Queensryche and Toto to name but a few.

The band took the brave step of releasing their debut full album themselves, even after their two previous EP’s received rave reviews and got a number of recording offers from world wide record companies, but the band refused to sign to anyone without finishing off their first full album and releasing it on their own FishFarm label.

The album was mixed my Daniel Flores of Minds Eye and mastered by Mika Jussila who has worked with both Nightwish and Masterplan, so the pedigree behind the desks is as high as you can get.  The musicianship is also equal to it as the band of Torfinn Sirnes on guitars, Johannes Stole on vocals, Rudolf Fredly on bass and Harald Levang on drums with a few added guests along the way, deliver a fine piece of Melodic Prog Rock.

The album opens up with ‘Father & Son’, a classy opener that mixes some cello in with the more traditional keyboard and guitar sound and gives the track an added air of class and with Stole’s soulful vocals, this is Prog at its finest.

Things continue with ‘Promises’, with the guitars being a more dominant force on this more Melodic Rock track, with Sole’s vocals lending themselves well to the hard rock style of the song.

The band bring a sort of Genesis/Marillion crossover vibe into the mix on ‘The Garden’, before one of the high points of the album for me the excellent ‘Where The Rain Fall’, with its many layers and sound bites making for great listening, as every time you listen to it you pick out something you missed the last time round, even the touch of Hammond Organ at the end is inspiring.

The title track ‘Crossing Over’ has mellower refrain to the previous tracks, this track builds slowly from humble beginnings before the soar away guitars of Sirnes take over and really bring this track to life.

The tempo is picked up once more with the keyboard infused instrumental ‘The Line’, as it's mixed once again with some fantastic guitar work as the track crescendos to its dramatic end.

Another superb slice of Prog is ‘World of Things’, before the equally superb melodic tones ‘The Other Side’, which boasts a guest guitar solo by no other than Daniel Palmqvist, not a bad ace to pull out of your sleeve eh?

The pace is once again slowed down with the subtle majestic tones of ‘How Much More Than A Dream’ before it's picked up once again on ‘The Altar Of Love’ and ‘Why’, with its excellent bass work of Fredly and the dark riffs of Stole, which make this another stand out track, although the true track of the album has to be the closer ‘Out Of The Rain’, with Daniel Palmqvist on acoustic guitar and Thomas Nilsson’s cello, who along with the remainder of the band just flow along to Stoles wonderful vocals.

The band waited to finish this album before signing a deal and I tell you after this album those labels will be baying at the doors of this band to sign these guys up, so watch out for a second release in the not too distant future on a worldwide label!  Such is the class of this band.

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